Wildfire Beaters

[Mx19]

New to the “new” forums.

Just a question about Wildfire tactics in the U.K.

I have just returned from working in Canada on a Helitack IA crew in northern Alberta and before that 3 years on a Wildfire crew in NZ and now going through recruitment with LFB.

I’ve never seen the “beaters” used and was just wondering about the efficiency of them? From an outsiders perspective, having not seen the fuel type up close etc they seem very inefficient but I’m sure I’m missing something otherwise they wouldn’t be used right?

Cheers!

Max

p.s. This is in no way meant to come across as a “I Know better” question or anything of the sort because I don’t, I’m genuinely intrigued.

[Noddy]

I think it’s more to do with it’s the best we’ve got mate. My brigade don’t invest heavily in wild fire gear as we simply don’t have them on the scale seen on the moors.... and by no means what you’re used to.  The beaters we carry are fit for purpose for the majority of grass fires we have. 

[Dyson]

I’ve never actually thought about it that much, but yeah? He’s right? They are crap ?

[Mx19]

On 04/07/2018 at 08:59, Noddy said:

I think it’s more to do with it’s the best we’ve got mate. My brigade don’t invest heavily in wild fire gear as we simply don’t have them on the scale seen on the moors.... and by no means what you’re used to.  The beaters we carry are fit for purpose for the majority of grass fires we have. 

Yeah I guess that’s what I assumed. I mean they obviously work.

To be honest we don’t carry a huge amount of equipment, especially on initial attack, due to helicopter weight restrictions and lack of access. Our go-to’s are piss packs (water backpacks) and pulaskis; which are used in a very similar way to the beaters to pull everything into the black, just with digging and cutting capability.

Anyway its been tough watching it all blow up knowing I can’t get involved. Hats off to you all pulling long shifts in the seemingly hot PPE!

Cheers

Max

[Hmckay91]

As you can imagine there is a marked difference between how wildland firefighters fight wildland fires and how structural firefighters fight wildland fires in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI).   

As with the venerable fire broom the beaters can be very effective in direct fire attack in low to medium height ground fuels.  In he absence of the water packs, beaters provide some additional range to knock down the flame height prior to cleaning up the edge with a fire broom (or hand tools) or to provide some time and space (or direct the fire away from a risk) while getting other extinguishment operations established.  I have extinguished and controlled many a smaller ground fire with brooms and beaters prior to arrival of the pump.

Tactically, a combination works best.  In this example the firefighter's on the right could be making a 1-3 foot wide fire line (not really a cold trail) a with the brooms while the beaters are knocking down the flame front.

[HB2016]

Some of the beaters inefficiency is down to the fact that there is little to no training. Some fire fighters are literally 'beating' the flame rather than smothering simply sending embers off into nice ready to burn grass.